Handshake – Online Job/Internship Board

Handshake is Nevada State’s online internship and job board for students and alumni. Through Handshake employers and their staff can*:

• Post vacancies for full-time, part-time and internship positions
• Advertise hiring and recruitment events
• Manage ALL college campus recruiting efforts at no cost (Handshake works with 800+ colleges and universities across the country including UNLV, UNR and CSN)
• View student profiles and message student talent within Handshake about your opportunities

*In order for your job or internship postings to be seen by Nevada State students and alumni, when you create an employer account it will first need to be approved by our staff. We reserve the right to deny any employer account or job or internship opportunity if it does not abide by our institution’s mission, values or our Career Services recruiting guidelines. Due to the high volume of employer account connections we receive, it may take 1-2 weeks for your employer account to be approved.

To get started, please visit Handshake’s help center: https://support.joinhandshake.com/hc/en-us 

Guidelines for Posting or Sharing Jobs & Internships

In order to ensure that prospective students have a good understanding of your job/internship experience and to ensure that employers are adequately prepared, we ask that employers include the following information below when posting or sharing job/internship opportunities:

• Brief description of your organization and the responsibilities of the job/ internship
• Preferred or required qualifications
• Work logistics (hours per week, organization operating hours,  wage, etc.)
• Application process
• Learning opportunities
• Any background check or drug testing requirements
• Any citizenship or immigration status requirements

Tips for Better Engagement with your Job/Internship Postings

Sometimes employers are concerned when they see little engagement with their job internship postings. There can be a few reasons for this:

• Your job/internship post or position was up for a short period of time. We always recommend leaving your posting open for around a month if possible. Oftentimes, students will need to prepare their application materials before applying, and that process can take some time if they are also busy with school and other personal commitments. Leaving the internship posting up longer also allows students the time to weigh their options and prepare to apply. Because of these factors and others, employers who only leave their posts up for sometimes 2 weeks or less may see low application numbers.
• The timing of your posting/advertising (specific to internships). Posting too far in advance or too late can hinder the number of applications you get. We typically recommend that employers post their internship opportunities anywhere from 1.5-4 months in advance from when you would want an intern to begin their role. If you post earlier than this, many students are unable to consider internships that far ahead since their schedules change semester to semester. Additionally, posting too late will leave you with few interested students, since most will have their internships secured anywhere from 1-3 months before the internship will begin.
• The details of the job/internship. At NS we are working to educate our students on avoiding scams in employment applications, which also extends to internships. Often, if your post or role description and duties are too vague, students will not apply either out of fear of scams or just not fully understanding what the role entails.

This list is meant to give employers some understanding of how they can make their job/internship opportunities better stand-out to students and also maximize the opportunities for applicants. This is not an exhaustive list.

Internships at Nevada State

Nevada State offers a flexible model for students to intern. Depending on their program, students may be able to earn academic credit for an internship with your organization. Students at this time are not required to receive credit, though most who have the option will choose to. Employers must first be approved with the Career Services Center before academic credit can be offered to a student intern. Being an approved internship site that offers internships for academic credit can be a benefit for organizations that want to host student interns on a regular basis.

If you would like to share your internship opportunity with our students and/or provide an internship opportunity for academic credit to our students, please contact our office career@nevadastate.edu. 

Privileges for recruiting interns at Nevada State may be revoked at any time if the Career Services Center feels that any illegal or inappropriate actions are taken from an organization or if an organization no longer follows our recruiting guidelines.

Internship Definition and Guidelines

To ensure that an experience—whether it is a traditional internship or one conducted remotely or virtually—is educational, and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship by the National Association of Colleges & Employers definition, all the following criteria must be met:

• The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.
• The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
• The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.
• There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.
• There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
• There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor. 
• There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

In addition to the definition from NACE, other important details that help to create a quality internship program include:

• Orientation and training for the intern
• Opportunity to network and meet colleagues and organizational leadership
• Intern is provided specific project/responsibilities at the start of the internship

Internships under Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

In 2018 the Department of Labor established a new “primary beneficiary test” with FLSA Fact Sheet #71 that helps to determine whether interns and students working for “for-profit” employers are entitled to minimum wages and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).¹

Background
The FLSA requires “for-profit” employers to pay employees for their work. Interns and students, however, may not be “employees” under the FLSA—in which case the FLSA does not require compensation for their work.

The Test for Unpaid Interns and Students
Courts have used the “primary beneficiary test” to determine whether an intern or student is, in fact, an employee under the FLSA.² In short, this test allows courts to examine the “economic reality” of the intern-employer relationship to determine which party is the “primary beneficiary” of the relationship. Courts have identified  seven factors as part of the test – see FLSA Fact Sheet #71.

Courts have described the “primary beneficiary test” as a flexible test, and no single factor is determinative. Accordingly, whether an intern or student is an employee under the FLSA necessarily depends on the unique circumstances of each case.

If analysis of these circumstances reveals that an intern or student is actually an employee, then he or she is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA. On the other hand, if the analysis confirms that the intern or student is not an employee, then he or she is not entitled to either minimum wage or overtime pay under the FLSA.

Where to Obtain Additional Information
This publication is for general information and is not a regulation. For additional information, visit the Wage and Hour Division Website: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov.

Footnotes

¹ – The FLSA exempts certain people who volunteer to perform services for a state or local government agency or who volunteer for humanitarian purposes for non-profit food banks. WHD also recognizes an exception for individuals who volunteer their time, freely and without anticipation of compensation, for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian purposes to non-profit organizations. Unpaid internships for public sector and non-profit charitable organizations, where the intern volunteers without expectation of compensation, are generally permissible.

Micro-Internships 

Nevada State partners with Parker Dewey, the leading organization in connecting college talent to employers through short-term, hands-on professional projects referred to as micro-internships. Micro-internships are paid opportunities lasting anywhere from 1 week to a few months that allows employers to receive support on timely projects.

The benefit of micro-internships is that they are often more flexible than traditional internship/fellowship/assistantship programs and allow employers to “try-out” college talent.

For more information, please visit Parker Dewey’s FAQ page: https://www.parkerdewey.com/faq

Career Closet 

The Career Closet is a new program offered by the Career Services Center. The closet provides FREE career wear to current Nevada State students (the closet is not available to Alumni at this time). 

Donation Information

What We Accept

• business casual or business professional clothing
• masculine, feminine and androgynous business casual/professional wear
• accessories such as bags, wallets, professional jewelry, ties, belts
• we accept clothing of all sizes

Examples: blouses, slacks, blazers, button-up shirts, pencil skirts, dresses

What We Do NOT Accept

• anything with stains, holes, missing buttons/zippers, pungent odors; donations must be washed or dry-cleaned
• undergarments of ANY kind regardless of condition; we do not accept socks, underwear, or bras
• casual street-wear clothing; this includes but is not limited to t-shirts, jeans, sweatpants, sneakers, etc.

To coordinate a donation drop-off, please contact our office at career@nevadastate.edu or call (702) 992-2611.

Coming Soon!

School of Nursing Recruitment

At this time the School of Nursing is not seeking additional clinical rotation/internship/practicum partners.

If you would like to post a job opportunity for our nursing students, please go to the Post jobs & Internships tab.

School of Education Recruitment

• Teacher Education Programs – At this time our teacher education programs are not seeking additional student teaching partners.
• Speech Pathology (Bachelor) & Speech Language Pathology (Masters) Programs – At this time our speech pathology-related programs are not seeking additional internship/practicum partners.
• School Psychology Ed.S. (Masters) program – At this time our School Psychology Ed.S. program is not seeking additional internship/practicum partners.

If you would like to post a job opportunity for our School of Education students, at both the undergrad and master’s levels, please go to the Post jobs & Internships tab.

Below are strategies to engage with diverse students and showcase your organization’s dedication to diversity and inclusion.

Review Your Hiring Processes

• Post open positions in Handshake to ensure opportunities are accessible to all students. A best practice to support diversity and equity is to post all positions to Handshake to ensure all students have equal access.
• Write position descriptions with inclusive language.
• Evaluate whether your processes increase barriers to any population. For example, some interview technology is challenging to individuals with disabilities. Or, if you require a full background check, that often disqualifies many students who have immigrated.
• Reflect on which qualifications are truly required in order for an employee or intern to adequately complete the job/internship, which are preferred, and which could be taught upon hire. Interns, in particular, should not be expected to have the same level of skill as an employee as they are there to further develop those skills for future employment.

Acknowledge the Impact of Privilege

Try to assess the potential of the individual. Some students have responsibilities that affect their ability to be involved in student organizations, have internships or maintain high grades.

• Review required qualifications to ensure they reflect the abilities of our students and college students generally, such as specific# of years of experience or high proficiency in a skill. Because NS serves a high population of first-generation and DACA/Undocumented students, they may have had previous barriers to other hands-on learning opportunities such as internships or jobs.
• Make compensation competitive, transparent and equitable.
• Support scholarships and funding for internship programs. Contact the Career Services Center to see how you can help support the needs of our students.

Connect with Students One-On-One

NS is unable to provide student lists to external audiences, which would violate FERPA policies and not considered a best practice by the Ethical and Legal Standards of the National Association of Colleges & Employers. We recommend you:

• Engage in on-campus events and recruiting/networking opportunities to share your organization’s mission and opportunities with students.
• Create robust personal profiles on Handshake & LinkedIn and to tell your company’s story and include involvement in diversity and inclusion efforts. Encourage those in your organization to do the same.
• Respond timely when contacted by a student and, if you are not able to give your time now, suggest other professionals that could help.
• Have a two-way conversation, sharing your background and advice, getting to know the student and offering ideas.

Consider Your Brand

Ensure your organization’s presence consistently reflects your commitment and support of diversity and inclusion.

• Include a statement or additional content in your marketing materials that defines how diversity and inclusion supports your organization’s mission.
• Highlight your affinity/employee resource groups. If possible, beyond listing them, describe some of their activities or feature them within your news stories to show how people in your organization connect with each other.
• Join national organizations that support diverse populations and/or be involved in committees within general associations or chambers of commerce.
• Provide support and mentorship to new interns and employees to ensure they are successful in their roles and able to serve as ambassadors for your organization.